Privacy Policy

Guardian Group Privacy Policy

 

​Guardian Group (“Company,” “we,” or “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting it through this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and disclose information when you access and use guardiangroup.org and any other website on which this Privacy Policy is posted (the “Website”), whether as a guest or a registered user.

When accessing the Website, the Company will learn certain information about you, both automatically and through information you provide to us during your visit. This Privacy Policy applies to information we collect on the Website and in email, text, or other electronic messages between you and the Website.

Please read the Privacy Policy carefully before you start to use the Website. By using the Website or by clicking to accept or agree to the Terms of Use when this option is made available to you, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the Privacy Policy, you must not access or use the Website.

 

Information We Collect About You

We collect the following categories and types of “Personal Information”:

  • Contact Information: your first name and last name, mailing address, email address, and phone number;
  • Other Identifying Information: IP address, social media user names, passwords and other security information for authentication and access;
  • Financial Information: credit card and debit card information;
  • Demographic Information: military history, race, ethnicity, gender and age;
  • Commercial Information: products purchased or viewed on our Website;
  • Geolocation Information: imprecise location data based upon your IP address;
  • Internet or Other Electronic Activity: your operating system, browser type, and browsing and click history, including information about how you navigate within our website and which elements of our Website you use most;
  • Inferences: inferences we draw from the other categories of information that we collect which reflect your preferences, characteristics, behavior and attitude.

 

How We Use Personal Information

We use your personal information for the following categories of use:

  • Transactional Purposes. We use your contact information, other identifying information, financial information, and internet or other electronic activity to:
    • Communicate with you about our Website, services and products.
    • Carry out any contract between you and the Company, collect donations, and administer our business activities.
    • Provide customer service and making available other items and services to our customers and prospective customers.
  • Analytical Purposes. We use your other identifying information, internet activity or other electronic activity, financial information, demographic information, commercial information, geolocation data, and inferences to analyze preferences, trends and statistics.
  • Marketing and Promotional Purposes. We use your contact information, other identifying information, demographic information, commercial information, geolocation information, internet or other electronic activity, and inferences to:
    • Provide you with offers, promotions, and information for and about our products and services.
    • Keep you informed about the products and services you have selected to receive and any related products and/or services.
    • Provide you offers to purchase products and services provided by third parties in exchange for a commission to be paid to us by such third parties.
    • Display advertisements to you that are tailored to your personal characteristics, interests, and activities.
  • Maintenance and Improvement of the Website. We use your contact information, other identifying information, commercial information, and internet or other electronic activity to:
    • Help diagnose technical and service problems and administer our Website, including determining technical design specifications, improve our overall performance, and identifying system performance or problem areas.
    • Handle your customer service requests.
    • Present our Website and its contents to you. The Company may use software programs to create summary statistics, which are used for such purposes as assessing the number of visitors to the different sections of our site, what information is of most and least interest,.
  • Security and Fraud Prevention: We use contact information, other identifying information, commercial information, financial information, demographic information, geolocation information, internet activity and other electronic activity, audio and video information, and inferences to protect the Website, our Company, victims of sex trafficking, and others, and to prevent fraud, theft, and misconduct.

 

Sources of Personal Information

We collect Personal Information from the following sources:

  • We collect information directly from you. We collect contact, other identifying information, financial information, demographic information directly from you. We collect information that users provide by filling out forms on the Website, registering for a class, communicating with us via contact forms, responding to surveys, search queries on our search feature, providing comments or other feedback, and providing information when ordering a product or service via the Website.
  • We collect information about you from third parties. We collect your Personal Information from third parties.
  • We collect information from you passively. We collect other identifying information and internet or other electronic activity passively using tools like browser cookies and pixels. This activity is further described in the Cookies, Advertising and Online Tracking section below.

 

Categories of Third Parties We Share Personal Information With

We share Personal Information with the following categories of third parties:

Service Providers

From time to time, we may establish a business relationship with other businesses whom we believe trustworthy and who have confirmed that their privacy practices are consistent with ours (“Service Providers”).  For example, we may contract with Service Providers to provide certain services, such as hosting and maintenance, data storage and management, and marketing and promotions.  We only provide our Service Providers with the information necessary for them to perform these services on our behalf.  Each Service Provider must agree to use reasonable security procedures and practices, appropriate to the nature of the information involved, in order to protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.  Service Providers are prohibited from using Personal Information other than as specified by us.

Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement

We cooperate with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law.  We may disclose Personal Information and any other information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties if, in our discretion, we believe it is necessary or appropriate in order to respond to legal requests (including court orders and subpoenas), to protect the safety, property, or rights of our company or of any third party, to prevent or stop any illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity, or to comply with the law. This includes disclosure of Personal Information to report human trafficking to law enforcement.

Our Affiliates

We may share Personal Information with businesses controlling, controlled by, or under common control with our Company.

Corporate Transactions

If our Company is merged, acquired, or sold, or in the event of a transfer of some or all of our assets, we may disclose or transfer Personal Information in connection with such transaction.  You will have the opportunity to opt out of any such transfer if, in our discretion, it will result in the handling of your Personal Information in a way that differs materially from this Privacy Policy.

 

Use of Cookies

Our website utilizes “cookies” and similar technologies to collect information about how our Website is used. A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier, that is stored on your computer to identify your computer and web browser. Information gathered through cookies may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our site, and the websites visited just before and just after our own, as well as your IP address.

Most web browsers are initially setup to accept cookies. You can reset you web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent, however, certain features of the Website may not work if you delete or disable cookies. Some of our Service Providers may use their own cookies, anonymous identifiers, or other tracking technology in connection with the services they perform on our behalf.

We use Google Analytics on the Website to analyze how users use the Website, and to provide advertisements to you on other websites.  For more information about how to opt out of having your information used by Google Analytics, visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.

 

Advertising and Online Tracking

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Website are served by third-parties, including advertisers, ad networks and servers, content providers, and application providers. These third parties may use cookies alone or in conjunction with web beacons or other tracking technologies to collect personal information about you when you use our website. The information they collect may be associated with your personal information or they may collect information, including personal information, about your online activities over time and across different websites and other online services. They may use this information to provide you with interest-based (behavioral) advertising or other targeted content.

Our systems do not recognize browser “Do Not Track” signals, but several Service Providers who utilize cookies on our Website enable you to opt out of targeted advertising practices. To learn more about these advertising practices or to opt out of this type of advertising, you can visit www.networkadvertising.org or www.aboutads.info/choices/.  We also provide you with additional tools to opt out of marketing from us.  You can learn about this in the “Managing Your Information Preferences” section of this Privacy Policy.

 

Managing Your Information Preferences

You can review, correct, update, or change your Personal Information by changing the relevant settings in your account or by emailing us at contact@guardiangroup.org. We do not share your Personal Information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Our emails provide users the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us, including our newsletter or promotional materials, through the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of our emails. You are able to opt out of receiving marketing emails from us, however, you cannot opt out of receiving all emails from us, such as emails about the status of your account. If you ever have trouble unsubscribing or other questions about this Privacy Policy, you can send an email to contact@guardiangroup.org.

 

How Do We Protect Your Information and Secure Information Transmissions?

We employ physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to ensure the security of the information we collect. This includes using standard security protocols and working only with reputable third-party vendors. However, no data transmission over the Internet or other network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.  As a result, while we strive to protect information transmitted on or through the Website, we cannot and do not guarantee the security of any information you transmit on or through the Website, and you do so at your own risk.

 

Links to Other Websites

Our Website may contain links to other websites or allow others to send you such links. A link to a third party’s website does not mean that we endorse it or that we are affiliated with it. We do not exercise control over third party websites. You access such third party websites or content at your own risk. You should always read the Privacy Policy of a third party website before providing any information to that website.

 

Processing in the United States

Please be aware that your Personal Information and communications may be transferred to and maintained on servers or databases located outside your state, province, or country. If you are located outside of the United States, please be advised that we process and store all information in the United States. The laws in the United States may not be as protective of your privacy as those in your location. By using the Website, you are agreeing to the collection, use, transfer, and disclosure of your Personal Information and communications will be governed by the applicable laws in the United States.

 

Policy Changes

It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Privacy Policy on this page. If we make changes to how we treat our users’ personal information, we will notify you by posting the revised Privacy Policy on the Website. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the bottom of the page. By continuing to use the Website, you are consenting to the revised Privacy Policy.

 

Contact Us

Guardian Group welcomes your questions or comments regarding the Privacy Policy:

Guardian Group

1900 NE 3rd St.

Suite 106 #40

Bend, OR 97701

Email Address: contact@guardiangroup.org

Effective as of July 9, 2019; Last updated [May 24, 2022]